Yesterday A Moment Later: And then September

So I didn't catch up with posting all of last year before last year ended- Shocking, I know.
But I'm still gonna do it- better late than never!!

Ok, so then there was September. September was a great month. This particular September was better than most Septembers because it was the September of my 30th Birthday!! I'm so excited to be 30- it just sorta makes me feel legit. Anyway, the 7th is my birthday but the 3rd was Labor Day so Shawn and some friends thought it would be clever to plan a big surprise party for me on this holiday. Shawn told me we (the two of us) were just going to Santa Cruz for the day but then the entire way down there he kept getting texts (which he never gets) and then some phone calls where he said things like "yeah" and "uh huh". Finally on one of these mysterious calls I could hear that it was Courtney and at the very end I heard her say "ok- we'll see you in a half hour". So I totally found out. Anyway, it was such a terrific day. Unfortunately our camera battery died and this is the only picture we have of it (that's me having so many ride tickets I can afford to just toss them around)

But Fortunately, the event was well documented by Alex and Heather on their site. Make sure you get to all the details about the deep-fried Twinkie and and my big "S"hawn tattoo. (I'm pretty sure that kid told all his friends my boobs were like a D cup!)
So then that night there were more surprises. We went to dinner and I had even more friends there including Charles all the way from Indiana. He was really in town for work but I like to tell myself he came for my birthday. Anyway, Shawn had made it a party for my mom too which was hilarious. I had been feeling so guilty about missing my mom's birthday that I told Shawn I didn't deserve any parties, so he told everyone to bring a present for my mom rather than me. It was great!!!

Greg and Leah's Wedding
Around the first of the month Uncle Greg calls up Shawn and says, "hey, what are you guys doing on Friday the 7th", and Shawn says, "well it's Robyn's Birthday, but why do you ask" and Greg says, "We're gonna get married that day". Wow!
So with about 10 days of planning Greg and Leah got married! It was really sweet- just out on the edge of the pier by the light house right at dusk and right next to where they live in Santa Cruz.

Leah was driven down the long pier by the park police which was pretty cute. They were surrounded by all their close family and friends, said some vows with baby in the middle, jumped over a broom, and it was done.

Then they moved the celebration over to Brady's- a local bar that is kinda like their second home- where they stood on top of the pool table and toasted their love.

But a group of us headed next door for some dinner because Brady's wasn't buying that Mr. Parker here was 21 or over.

But we had a lovely dinner over there and Greg even popped over to show us an imitation of his pet Bearded Dragon.

So despite the fact that Greg and Leah totally stole my glory away from me today :) , it was a wonderful way to spend my birthday. Although I just realized that I apparently don't have any pictures of me on my 30th Birthday- how sad.

Baci, Scout, and The Boys
The next day I had a photo shoot down in San Jose with Jill. Jill just got married in Florida and wanted to do this photo shoot of their new combined family (his kids, her house, one dog each :)) as a surprise wedding gift for her husband-to-be.

Petey's Birthday at the Horse Races

Pete's Birthday also falls in September and he has a tradition of throwing very silly parties that usually include lots of things with pictures of him on it (actually, come to think of it- so do his Christmas', and Valentines' and any wedding he attends) Anyway, this party was at the horse races and after every race all the losing tickets got put into his hat for a consolation prize drawing. I did actually win one of the horse races which got me $6.30 from Bay Meadows, but my consolation prize for one of the races I lost was by far the better of the prizes . . .

Yep, that's me in a sexy little under outfit with iron-on pictures of Pete. Pete (he's in the picture too but it might be hard to find him cause he kinda blends with his sweatshirt- he's red) anyway, Pete claims that Shawn is the real winner here. . . . Especially because Shawn's luck didn't even end with me getting some Hot Pink Pete Lingerie. He himself scored Pete's Sticky Styling Gel.

The best gel you can buy at the dollar store, we're told.
Anyway, it was some good old fashioned Latvian fun:

Shanna and Dustin on Treasure Island

On the last day of the month Maria and I did our first wedding together. It was a wedding she'd booked but I joined her for it as a bit of practice as far as shooting together goes. Eventually our goal is to shoot all our weddings together. We both feel passionate about this being such a better way to photograph something as important as a wedding. It was just so refreshing to know that both the guys and the girls are being covered, that both the front and the back of the ceremony are being captured, and even when we were photographing from the exact same spot we came out with totally different shots just as a result of two photographers seeing things differently. Having another professional photographer there also lessened the stress level and I think that allowed us to photograph even more so from the heart.
Here's a few of my images from the day:

Shanna's family were all really close, and it was endearing to watch how much she and her siblings seriously loved for one another. Here her little sister/flower girl was holding Shanna's earrings for her as she put them on and I just love her adoring face as she watches her beautiful big sister.